


A Thief in the Garden

by CinnamonZor



Series: ShuHaru Week 2019 - A Fool for the Empress [5]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Persona 3, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hope's Peak Academy (Dangan Ronpa), Bad Pick-Up Lines, Demisexual Kurusu Akira, Everyone is an Ultimate, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gardens & Gardening, Minako and Akira are bros, Pick-Up Lines, Shipper Minako
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-18 12:24:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18699565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CinnamonZor/pseuds/CinnamonZor
Summary: Day 5 - AUAkira smiled softly as he took in the upside-down view of the academy greenhouse. In spite of its undeniable splendor, however, the second-year's attention very rarely settled on the practical jungle of plant life covering the room.





	A Thief in the Garden

**Author's Note:**

> Yes I know it's a day late. But I had homework and this is for funsies anyway so I'll do what I want within reason. (Chiaki puffy face sprite)

Akira smiled softly as he took in the upside-down view of the academy greenhouse. In spite of its undeniable splendor, however, the second-year student's attention very rarely settled on the practical jungle of plant life covering the room. Rather, his focus was primarily directed toward his gifted, fluffy-haired senpai as he waited for her to finish reviewing their objectives for today's maintenance.

"…after which we just need to distribute the compost and we'll be done for the day," Haru read from the notebook in her hands. The Ultimate Gardener knew how to properly care for all the plants in the botanical garden without it, of course. Even so, she made sure to have the monthly care schedule in writing to avoid any potential errors that could negatively affect the plants. Akira admired how dedicated she was when it came to her talent.

"Sounds good," he grunted, swinging his legs up over his head and pushing off the shed roof with his palms. He flipped gracefully over Haru's head and landed feet-first on the brick walk behind her. Haru turned and started giggling as he stood up straight and brushed his hands together.

"I doubt I could ever get tired of watching your feats of agility, Akira," she stated cheerfully. "You really should be more proud of your talent, you know."

Akira snorted and adjusted his glasses. "I'm plenty proud of my talent," he replied. "I just wish I wouldn't get so much negative attention for it, that's all." Haru simply sighed in agreement and handed Akira the water can from beside her, and the two got to work on the garden.

Within the Hope's Peak Academy registry, Akira was officially listed as the Ultimate Phantom Thief. And, as hard as he tried to keep it under wraps, it was far from surprising that everyone in the school eventually learned about it one way or another. He wasn't lying when he said he was proud of his talent. He'd used his skills to help countless people and take down nearly a dozen reprehensible bigwigs from beyond the law's grasp. People typically likened him to a modern-day Robin Hood, though most only knew him by the alias printed on his signature calling cards: the legendary Joker.

He'd almost managed to get away with all his vigilantism completely, had it not been for that smug Akechi guy somehow busting him during that heist against that blatantly corrupt politician with the douchey orange sunglasses. Fortunately for Akira, he'd managed to get out of any more than a year-long parole by agreeing to Hope's Peak's invitation to attend the academy for his obvious talent.

As astounding as attending the most prestigious school in the country sounded on paper, Akira's short few months at the academy were far from comfortable. Aside from the same Ultimate Detective guy who busted him in the first place "coincidentally" being in his assigned homeroom, he'd been instantly ostracized out of fear once word got out about his talent (which Akechi swore wasn't his doing, but Akira still doubted him for anyway). Aside from Haru and the occasional comment from Akechi, there were only about seven other students who would willingly associate with him.

His status as an outcast only served to attract the friendship of Ryuji from the other second-year class. The Ultimate Track Runner had a reputation as a delinquent and was just as much of an outcast as Akira. Upon realizing who he was, that one Mishima guy from a few seats over had practically squealed loud enough to shatter a window. Apparently the Ultimate Forum Moderator was a complete otaku for his work and had gotten into the school in the first place for creating that massive Joker fan-site that popped up just before his heists had gotten big.

He'd befriended Minako, the class rep from Ryuji's homeroom, after she'd made it her mission to keep him from becoming lonely and dragged her own friends over to get to know him better. The Ultimate Motivator was particularly interesting to him and her talent certainly suited her well. With her, she'd brought Minato, her older twin brother and the Ultimate Tactician. He didn't really talk much, usually just tuning out his sister and Ryuji's chattering with those earphones he never seemed to be without. She'd also brought her boyfriend from the third-year class, Shinjiro Aragaki, the Ultimate Cook. He seemed slightly less quiet than Minato, mostly just standing around and reigning in his girlfriend when she got overly worked up about something.

The final person brought in by Minako was her best non-related platonic friend, Junpei Iori. As far as Akira could tell, the Ultimate Team Manager was practically a less profane, more perverted version of Ryuji. Even so, he and Minako got along exceedingly well, typically working together to concoct some sort of oddball scheme to keep everybody in high spirits. And with him, he dragged along his own significant other, the Ultimate Illustrator, Chidori Yoshino. She mostly just sketched stuff during their group's conversations and glared at Junpei when he said something particularly ignorant, but her boyfriend occasionally encouraged her to share something she'd drawn for them, always managing to impress the group with her incredible artistic talent.

But even though his friends made him happy, most of them were typically busy after school. Which was somewhat problematic, as Akira found he could hardly move two inches on his own without the intrusion of Odagiri, his own class rep. The Ultimate Disciplinarian seemed hellbent on harassing him at any given opportunity and slapping him with citations at the mildest hint of an infraction. The boy regularly spat reminders to those around him of his criminal background whenever anyone outside his usual confidants tried to stand up for him. No one else cared enough to pursue it. So, while Odagiri had learned his lesson about picking on Akira with any of the others around (especially Minako. She was by far the most stubborn), he knew well enough that the Phantom Thief had minimal security during their after school activities.

It was during a particularly annoying chase through the halls that Akira happened upon the locked door to the conservatory. After quickly picking the mechanism and slipping inside, he'd lost his uptight pursuer and stumbled upon Haru during her daily maintenance of the plants. For some reason, even after he reluctantly explained his situation, she'd still only treated him with overwhelming kindness. She almost reminded him of Minako, but… like a more adorable version of her? Sort of akin to a plushie, if that made sense.

From that day forward, Haru had invited him to continue hiding out in the garden after school. It took some insisting, but after a short time, Akira convinced her to let him help out with the work in exchange for her hospitality in what was essentially her personal workplace.

Also maybe because he wanted an excuse to talk to her more, but he had no current intention to admit to that part.

And so, about four months later, here they were. Caring for the academy's insane amount of exotic flora with the occasional conversation about whatever seemed interesting. It felt different from similar conversations with his friends, but in a good way. Haru quickly became his favorite person to talk to about anything and everything.

Akira was no idiot. He was fully aware that he had a crush on her. It was just somewhat… unfamiliar to him. He'd never actually had a crush on anyone before. For a while, he had seriously speculated the possibility that he was ace or something similar. He certainly didn't mind the idea, but the more time he spent with Haru, the more aware he became of his prior misunderstanding.

A couple weeks after he first noticed his interest in the Ultimate Gardener, Akira had been staring off into space just thinking about her at random points in the day. And, as was a given when it came to anyone she deemed a friend, Minako easily noticed the manner in which his mind tended to frequently shift elsewhere.

She only had to pester him for a day or two before Akira gave in and explained the situation. After some ecstatic squealing, Minako proudly appointed herself as his new personal relationship advisor. Figuring it couldn't hurt and she seemed to know what she was doing, Akira accepted her offer.

And so, here he was, caring for the plants with her as a pack of sticky notes burned a hole in his pocket. He covertly pulled it out and flipped through, finding whichever seemed most appropriate at the moment and stuffing it back.

"Hey, Haru?"

She turned her head to the side to face him. "Hmm?"

"I was wondering what your pH value is."

Haru just gave him a confused expression. "My pH…?"

"Because I'm pretty sure we're SOILmates."

It took her a second to process before letting out a quick snicker. Then she processed it a bit further and her cheeks turned bright red, her hand quickly cramming into her fluffy hair to nervously twirl it in her fingers. Akira kept a calm, yet somewhat awkward expression to mask his internal screaming.

_…I regret everything._

"I'll, uh," he muttered, "I'll just bring my watering can over here…" He turned away and started to walk towards another section of the mass of plants adorning the room, wondering how the hell he let Minako talk him into resorting to crappy pick-up lines. He made a mental note to lodge a formal complaint tomorrow.

"W-wait! Akira, hold on a minute!"

Akira stopped in his tracks and slowly turned around, shifting his weight from side to side as he faced the pink-faced Haru.

"I…" she stuttered nervously, "I'm concerned you may have become a vegetable!"

"…What?"

"Y-yes. Because you, um…" She paused a second and snickered a bit. "You look exactly like a cute-cumber!"

This time it was Akira's turn to transform his face into a flaming tomato. He failed to comprehend how she managed to make the same crappy plan as his become so insanely adorable. Yet there they were, letting the awkward tension die down as they both started to snicker. Those snickers turned into full-on laughter as the two couldn't help but be amused by their own sad attempts at flirting.

"There. Now we both look silly," Haru giggled, wiping dirt off her knees as she stood up with a smile. "We can call it even, so now you can say what you actually wanted to, right?"

Akira smiled back at the freaking ray of sunshine before him, doing her best to make him feel better at her own silly expense. He couldn't help but feel blessed that she still managed to accept him in spite of everything. Whether it be his suspicious reputation or a stupid pick-up line he instantly regretted. It was comforting. She was comforting. Comforting enough to make him think using flirtatious puns was a good idea in the first place. And Akira loved every last bit of it.

"So, Haru," he chuckled, "would you maybe wanna go for coffee or something this weekend?"

She clasped her hands over her chest, keeping her cheerful expression as her cheeks took on a faint rosy tint. "I'd like that very much."

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah this is definitely the weakest of the bunch. I think I mostly just loved the AU idea and focused more on the world-building than the actual story orz. I do still love the Hope's Peak AU and may do more with it in the future though. So... bright side?


End file.
